


Relatives

by OnceUponASunsetDream



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Damian secretly loves Grayson, Dick's maternal grandparents, Gen, just a bit, they're brothers, they're kinda stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceUponASunsetDream/pseuds/OnceUponASunsetDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick didn't know about his mothers side of the family before but he's tracked them down and he and Damian are going for a visit. Only they don't know their daughter's dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Relatives

**Author's Note:**

> Right I realise that both Dick and Damian are probably a bit OOC but, whatever. I read a few about Mary running away to join the circus and her parents not approving but they were from Mary's perspective, there were none with Dick finding more family so I wrote my own!

The doorbell rang, sending its loud repetitive chimes through the house. Richard Carter looked to his wife who stood with a smile, laying her knitting down on her armchair and moving towards the door. Richard closed his book and moved his hand towards his walking stick as he heard the door open. Grace opened the door with a welcoming smile and revealed two boys. One in his late teens or early twenties and the other was ten or eleven. They both had dark hair and a muscled figure but that was where the similarities ended. The younger wore dark jeans and a dark grey shirt with a yellow bat across the chest and a black jacket and combat boots. He had short black hair, blue-grey eyes and a scowl on his face that looked like a default expression. The elder wore tight blue jeans, a fitting blue shirt with the silhouette of a bird in flight and a grey jacket. He had black hair that fell to just below his ears and messy bangs that hung over his forehead and into his bright blue eyes. He had one muscular arm around the younger boy, pulling him into his side and the younger appeared to be grudgingly allowing it.

"Are you, ah…Grace Carter?" the elder asked hesitantly.

Grace smiled and nodded. "Yes. And who are you dear?"

"Um." he seemed quite nervous for some reason and Grace smiled comfortingly at him. This only served to make his edgier. "This is my adoptive brother, Damian and my name is, ah, Richard Grayson."

Grace froze and her husband stared at the youth as he stopped in the doorway after he had hobbled to the door. "Grayson?" The elderly man asked slowly. The young man nodded and looked them in the eye. He had her eyes. "Mary Grayson's son?" he nodded again. "I think you'd better come in." the two brothers exchanged a look but followed the elder man inside the house and sat opposite him on the couch when he waved for them to sit. 

Grace stood in the door for a moment observing the two boys before she shook herself out of it. "Can I get you anything?" She asked. "Coffee, water, juice." both shook their heads and her husband waved to her seat.

"Come sit, Grace. Let's hear what he has to say."

She sat, placing her knitting to the side and both of them turned to the boys on the couch but before either of them could speak the youngest turned to his brother expectantly. "Dick?" he asked pointedly. 

The elder rolled his eyes but fished an iPod out of his jacket pocket and handed it to his brother along with a ten dollar note. "You may have won this time but don't get used to it." the younger rolled his own eyes, stuffing the money into a jacket pocket and snorted as he put in the earphones and started up the music, closing his eyes and leaning against his brother. "Keep dreaming Grayson" the kid muttered obstinately.

'Dick' smiled fondly at his brother for a moment, replacing his arm around the kid's shoulders before he turned back to the elderly couple. "Recently… I decided to look up my family tree and found that my, ah…maternal grandparents were still alive so…I thought I might meet you."

"You're Mary's boy?" Richard asked. "You really are?" 

Dick nodded. "Yeah. Son of John and Mary Grayson." he looked sad for a moment but it soon vanished and was replaced with a smile so fast they almost missed it. "Will you tell me about them? I-I-I mean what were they like before?"

Grace and Richard exchanged looks before they looked back to the youth. "We, uh, we haven't heard from our daughter or her husband for about fifteen years." Grace said softly.

"We didn't approve of her falling for a circus performer and made that known, myself more than Grace or Jenny." Richard said softly, shame on his face as he looked down at his hands knotted together over his walking stick. "I wanted more for my daughter than being a circus performer with a gypsy. I told her so and she ran away in the dead of night. The next day the circus moved on. We got an invitation to the wedding of Mary Carter and John Grayson six months later but we didn't go. We were still too angry. Haven't heard anything since."

Dick's face was tight, jaw clenched and eyes dark. "So you know nothing, absolutely nothing about what has happened in the last fifteen years."

Even Damian looked up at his brother at that, took one plug from his ear and nudged the elder in the side. Dick closed his eyes and tightened his grip around the boy. "Who is Jenny?" he asked bluntly.

Grace sniffed, wiping a stray tear off her wrinkled cheek. "Our elder daughter. Your aunt." she said, nodding to Dick who looked away. "She never agreed with what happened to Mary. She didn't like her relationship with John any more than we did but at least she still kept in contact. She was a bridesmaid I believe, at their wedding."

Richard looked up at his grandson who looked frazzled. "So, how-how is Mary? You said this lad was your adoptive brother. Did Mary and John adopt?"

Dick shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "You don’t know." he muttered. "You've got no idea!"

"No idea? No idea about what? What don't we know?" Grace asked beginning to look terrified, fresh tears welling in her eyes for reasons she wasn’t entirely sure of. She supposed it must have something to do with how her grandson's bright blue eyes had darkened and held an unknown horror that they should never have known. "Has something happened to our daughter?"

Damian huffed. "Tt."

"Yes." Dick said shortly. "But you're about thirteen years too late. She's dead. My dad's dead. I've been an orphan since I was eight."

"An orphan." Grace breathed looking at Dick. "Mary's dead? What-what happened?"

"They fell." Dick snapped. "Acid was poured on the cables on the night of our last big show in Gotham and the cables snapped. They fell."

There was complete silence for what seemed like hours before Richard spoke once more. "My daughter died during an act?" he said saying the word act like it was some sort of taboo disease. 

Dick frowned, his expression beginning to become faintly bat-glareish. "Your daughter died doing something she loved with her family." he corrected pointedly. "She always told me that she felt constricted here and that dad taught her to fly."

"Fly." Richard scoffed, tears slipping unnoticed down his cheeks. "She would have thrived in normal life. Married a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher had a large happy family and died old and happy with grandchildren! She shouldn't have died in a dirty circus with a gypsy man and his child!"

"Richard!" Grace snapped looked horrified at her husband's words. 

"My mother." Dick said slowly and calmly, "was happy." Everyone was watching him, even Damian was staring up at his brother in between glaring at the elderly couple. "You obviously know nothing of my mum. She loved you, I remember her telling me about her parents. I'm named for you, you know." he added, nodding to his grandfather. "My mother was very happy at the circus, she loved my father and my father loved her. She loved me, nothing will change my mind on that." Dick hissed in a low voice. "She would never have been happy chained down as a housewife with a lawyer for a husband."

Richard had gone grey but his eyes still shone with anger and defiance. Grace was pale and her face was streaked with tears but she nodded, looking down at his hands. "He is right, Richard. Mary wouldn't have been happy with anyone else."

"She would have been content!" he cried. "Content and alive!" 

Dick stood up and Damian shrank back into the cushions looking unsure as to what to do. "My mother died doing what she loved and I had to watch. I was eight years old and it was my first major performance. My parents had only just allowed me to join their act and we were in Gotham, one of the most popular circus locations in North America." he said softly, eyes dark and intense, hands fisted by his sides. Grace had a hand pressed to her mouth and Richard was staring at his grandson. 

"They dropped me off at one platform and gave me kiss on the forehead. "Do us proud, little Robin, they said. And then the next time I saw them they were waving at me from the other side of the tent. The ringmaster announced our act and the crowd cheered. The lights landed on my parents and my father swung out on the trapeze, doing the routine flips and then returning for my mother who had already swung out and he caught her ankles. They did their couples routine and it was beautiful, the flips, the spins. They were so happy. Then they came for me as the ringmaster announced me. I shrugged off my robe to reveal the new costume and waited for them to come for me. Dad was holding mum's ankles again and she was reaching for me, she was beaming and her eyes were shining." Dick had sat back down beside his brother and closed his eyes, a small smile on his face as he remembered. 

"I could see dad behind her watching me and smiling proudly, I was just about to jump, grab my mother's hands when their faces changed, I looked up as they did and then the ropes snapped. I wanted to jump, I wanted to grab mum's hands and then I'd be safe, I didn't understand what was happening. Mum's fingers slipped passed mine and she said my name and then she fell. My parents had such terrified looks on their faces and I didn't really comprehend what was happening until I heard their bodies hit the ground one by one. After that it's kinda blank, when I came to, I was kneeling in a pool of their blood, looking down at their broken bodies, people were screaming all around me and I think I was crying. Then someone pulled me away and hugged me, hid my face in their chest and carried me away. As I found out later it was Bruce Wayne who pulled me away from their bodies and after it was said that no one from the circus could adopt me so he did instead. Gotham's biggest playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, adopted little orphan Dickie Grayson and loved me like his own."

Grace was sobbing quietly and Richard was staring down at his clenched fists. Damian had slipped his small hand into Dick's larger one and squeezed gently as Dick took in a shuddering breath. "You were adopted by Bruce Wayne?" Grace asked once she had controlled her sobs. 

Dick nodded as he squeezed Damian's hand. "Yes, yeah he did." Dick smiled. "Then he adopted several other kids, too. I've got three brothers and two sisters now. Dami's the only one of us who's Bruce's biological kid, but we're all treated the same."

"So-So you had a good childhood then?" Grace asked haltingly.

Dick and Damian exchange glances but then Dick nodded. "Yeah, yeah I was happy and Bruce was really good to me. His parents died when he was young so he knew what I was going through and how to help."

Richard nodded robotically but the man seemed to be frozen. Dick stood and this time Damian followed, sticking close beside his brother, eyeing the elder man with a mix of curiosity and caution in his eyes. "I think that maybe I should go." Dick said slowly. "I've had twelve years to get over this and I just dumped the whole lot on you at once." he wrapped his arm around Damian's shoulders again and smiled charmingly at his grandmother. "I'd like to hear from you again but if you'd rather not, I wouldn't be too offended I don't think." he paused frowning. "I don't really know. Anyway, it was lovely meeting you, I can show myself out. Goodbye." he turned and began to leave the room but stopped when Damian didn't follow. "Dami?"

"Just a moment, Grayson. I just want to have a word with your grandparents." Dick gave him a swift calculating look before he simply sighed and left the room. Damian turned back to the couple and fixed them with a deadly glare. "You had better not ditch him because if you do it will crush him. He was ridiculously happy to find that he still had living relatives and if you leave him now after what just happened I will personally ensure that you regret it." the boy hissed before he turned and stalked out of the room after his elder brother. 

The door closed behind them and Grace and Richard Carter were left in a ringing silence, listening to the purr of a car engine and the sounds of a car leaving their driveway and moving down the street and out of earshot. In the car itself, Dick turned to his brother with a stern expression but the twitching at the edge of his lips betrayed his expression. "What did you say?" he asked sounding part curious part wary. 

Damian smirked as he looked out of the window. "Nothing bad." he assured his brother. "Just a cautionary warning."

Dick laughed. "Is there a chance I'll ever hear from them again?" he asked jokingly.

"I'm sure of it." Damian said, sounding deadly serious. 

"Aww." Dick cooed. "How sweet! I love you, little brother."

 

Damian scowled. "Tt."


End file.
